Five Developing Nations Join to Fight Drug-Resistant TB

By

Geeta Anand and

Betsy McKay

Feb. 3, 2013 7:56 p.m. ET

NEW DELHI—For the first time, five emerging-market nations with extensive infectious-disease problems—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—have agreed to work together to fight an epidemic of drug resistance in tuberculosis.

The pact is the latest indication that the world is awakening to the threat of drug-resistant TB, a killer that claims hundreds of thousands of lives annually and which is threatening to become all but incurable, in some instances, with current treatments. The agreement comes as the World...